Benefits cost less than 20% of payroll

Most respondents spend 20% of payroll or less on benefits each year (including pension, but excluding pay and cash bonuses).

More than three-quarters (88%) of respondents to The Benefits Research 2014, which surveyed 256 respondents in March 2014, said this was the case in their organisation.

Despite widely varying economic conditions, this has changed little over the past decade.

In 2004, most respondents to the inaugural Benefits Research spent less than 20% of payroll on benefits, and the same can be seen in each of the intervening years.

Given the ongoing focus on costs in most organisations, it is perhaps worrying that more than a quarter (26%) of respondents said they do not know what their benefits cost their organisation. This figure is unchanged since 2013.